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Loot
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Movie Info

Joe Orton's black comedy farce has been adapted to the screen in a fast-paced, but ultimately ineffective, adaptation. Hywel Bennett and Roy Holder are two lay-abouts named Dennis and Hal who decide to improve their lot in life by robbing a bank. After pulling the job, they have to hide the loot -- and where else but in the casket of Holder's recently deceased mother? Unfortunately, although the boys hide the money, they can't hide the casket, so they opt for stashing it in the bathroom of the hotel run by Holder's father (Milo O'Shea). All is well until wacky Inspector Truscott (Richard Attenborough) arrives to investigate. Snapping at his heels is Fay (Lee Remick) -- a sexy nurse looking for the loot. Soon, the father's hotel becomes a cacophony of stomping feet and slamming doors, with the loot and the corpse in a farcical shell-game, one step ahead of discovery by the inept Truscott. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Audience Reviews for Loot

"Loot" is based on a play by the notorious Joe Orton, who was murdered three years before this film was released. This, along with the curiosity of seeing Lee Remick in an unusual role, are the only reasons to seek out this deservedly obscure movie.
Two fools, Hal and Dennis, hatch an implausible robbery plot. Hal's mother has freshly died, and the funeral parlor is adjacent to a bank. Taking advantage of their temporary access, the boys plan to tunnel through the wall, rob the bank and then hide the money in the coffin where no one will look. Their scheme is half successful, but they hit a snag when they discover that the pile of bills doesn't leave enough room in the coffin for the body. This dilemma launches a perverse farce concerned with stashing the mother's corpse while keeping the stolen money hidden from a suspicious inspector.
The endless shuffling of the casket, body and money bags quickly turns repetitive, and it doesn't help that the limp dummy used as a stand-in corpse is painfully obvious. The two leads are charmless toads, and Richard Attenborough (you know, the guy who directed "Gandhi"?) gives a ridiculously burlesque performance as the inspector. The one saving grace is gorgeous Remick, who has a ball dumping her clean-cut image to portray a vampy Irish maid with a sordid history. Her wicked teasing of Dennis and his newly widowed father is much more fun to watch than the main story.
Another problem is Keith Mansfield's score, which adds overly literal pop songs to serve as awkward narration.
So many wonderful British comedies were released during this era of Peter Sellers, Albert Finney, Richard Lester and the like -- see them all before you settle for "Loot."